The 2021 season for the LA Kings, much like for other teams around the league, had its ups and downs. Going into the season for LA, more growing pains were expected. At the start of the season, the Kings had the eighth youngest roster in the NHL. Rookies were playing important positions, the roster was constantly in flux, and a new system was still being implemented.
For Todd McLellan and the rest of the coaching staff, signs of growth started to materialize before the shutdown of the league last year. Ending on a seven-game win streak, progression was noticeable, and players were starting to adhere to the new system. Even though their record said otherwise, the Kings posted a surprisingly good team xGF% last year of 51.01 during 5v5 play, according to EvolvingHockey.com.
That would be good enough to be 12th in the NHL.
The relatively high standing for Los Angeles in xGF% last year even caught the attention of Patrick Bacon over at TopDown Hockey, “This was a surprise,” he stated, “but less so when you consider that Todd McLellan’s teams have generally done a strong job of driving play.”
Even with the surprising results from the prior year, Los Angeles was still poised for another low placement in the standings. With the inability of many returning players to play any meaningful hockey for over a year, and no real quality roster additions in the off-season (even with a large amount of cap space), expectations around the hockey community for the Kings were low. Sure enough, they lived up to those low expectations.
The Kings had a difficult time driving plays, and struggling to score during even-strength play didn’t just carry over from last season. It got worse.
Posting their lowest team expected goals percentage since EvolvingHockey.com started tracking the data in 2007 with 44.3, and fans hoping for progression found themselves watching a regressing hockey team.
When you face the Golden Knights, who finished number five in team xGF%, and the Avalanche, who were the best team in the NHL for 28% of the schedule, numbers may be skewed. And those top teams took the opportunity to beat up on the rebuilding Kings.
